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A study American - Israeli relations 1967 - 1973

Abstract

The War of June 1967 proved to be instrumental in changing the perceptions of the principal protagonists in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and also the major powers outside the region. The pre-emptive strike launched by Israel on 6 June began a comprehensive defeat of the Arab states, and in just six days Israel increased her size threefold, incorporating large portions of Arab land into her territory. The changes that occurred can be briefly summed up as follows: Soviet influence within the Arab states increased with military advisers sent to Egypt and Syria in great numbers to help reconstruct the defeated armies (despite the fact that Soviet armaments had failed to avoid a convincing Israeli victory). Israel's confidence both i n her own strength and i n her ability to survive increased. The idea that Israel could act as a "strategic asset" became a firmly established tenet of American foreign policy. Ironically, relations between the Soviet Union and the Arab states, who backed them, were strengthened after the defeat inflicted by Israel. On a practical level, the Soviet Union embarked upon a massive programme of military and economic support for the Arab states, quickly replacing the amount of military hardware that had been lost in the war. The Soviet newspaper "Izvestia" suggested that the Arab states realised that only: "through reliance upon the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, can they abolish completely imperialist influence in the Middle East and achieve Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories"!